


Some Help

by Rulerofyouall



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Hood/Arsenal (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Animal Instincts, Animal Transformation, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Jason Todd Deserves Better, Jason Todd Has Issues, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Jason Todd is Red Hood, M/M, Protective Dick Grayson, Protective Roy Harper, Roy Harper Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:33:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28352481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rulerofyouall/pseuds/Rulerofyouall
Summary: Everyone has a different form, an ability to shift into an animal. Roy is a fox, red like his hair, and Jason has always been a pit bull. However, due to his past experiences, his animal form never grew up beyond a puppy.One day, Roy comes home after patrol to find bloody paw prints on the floor.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Roy Harper, Roy Harper & Jason Todd, Roy Harper/Jason Todd
Comments: 7
Kudos: 189





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I own nothing!

Looking left and right, Roy stowed away into his apartment. He and Jason usually went in through the window, not wanting any of their neighbors to notice that Arsenal and Red Hood lived among them. He hadn't seen his partner much that night; Dick had requested some back up for an encounter he and Tim had had earlier that night. Jason had wanted him to go, avoiding his siblings like the plague, and Roy had agreed to do so. That was hours ago.

"Jay? You in yet?" He stripped off pieces of his costume one by one, throwing them haphazardly onto the couch. He stopped to close the window and close the curtains.

It was silent. Perhaps Jason hadn't returned yet? Roy wasn't sure why, but it felt as though Jason was here. He couldn't see him or hear him, but Roy knew he was here.

He flicked the light switch on, his eyes focusing on the floor. There was blood pooling on it. It was heavier towards one of the other windows, which was still open. Jason must have been too injured to bother. Roy closed and locked the window first before turning back to the mess.

"Where are you?" He walked further into the apartment. The blood trail became smaller and smaller until all he could see was a few small paw prints trailing away.

 _Oh._ Whenever someone became too stressed or injured, they would automatically transform into their animal. It didn't happen to Jason often. He really did everything he could to ignore and forget about his other form. The pit bull puppy was quite small, having never grown after his death.

For some reason, the Lazarus Pit had not fixed the malnutrition his animal form like it had his human one. Jason had said it was because he had been a human when he went in. That didn't mean that he wasn't bitter about having such a small form. He was only about one pound as an animal.

Roy knew that Jason was probably hiding somewhere small, perhaps underneath any of the pieces of furniture they had. Immediately, he dropped down into his animal form, that of a fox. His fox form had a much stronger sense of smell, so he should be able to find his Jaybird.

Of course, both of their scents were all over their apartment, but it was much fresher in certain areas. He could also follow the sickly tang of the blood trail. It was a lot easier to follow, making a trail beyond that of the physical blood. It went towards their bedroom, which made sense since that was normally where the two of them went after patrol.

He sniffed around the door way, soon trotting towards the closet. Something (or more accurately, some _one_ ) had slightly pushed the closet door open. Roy nosed his way through, making the opening large enough for the fox to go in.

There was a small whining sound coming from the back of the closet. Roy whipped his head around, approaching the small shoe box pushed up against the corner of the closet. There was a small sniffing noise, and then, a small nose pushed outside, searching for him.

The pit bull was small and black in color with a white stripe streaking through his face. Roy knew for a fact that the white was not always there. When Jason was Robin, his pelt was completely black. His eyes were the same as they were when he was human although Roy usually thought they looked more innocent on a puppy.

Roy pushed his nose against the back of his neck, gently lifting him up before turning and leaving the closet. He instantly stood up into his taller human form, taking a closer look at his partner in the light.

There was a long gash down Jason's front right leg, definitely the source of all the blood. In his human form, the wound would have gone from his shoulder all the way to his wrist. It was deep too, deep enough that it was still seeping blood into the now sticky fur.

Roy made a face as he thought about his options. "I'm going to call Dick, okay?"

The small form growled at him, obviously not okay with his idea.

"Sorry, Jason, I'm going to need some help with this."

Another growl.

"No, Kori is not close enough for her to make it in a timely manner."

Jason huffed a bit, turning his head and refusing to look at his boyfriend.

"Listen, you won't be going back to the Batcave. I'm not going to let him take you out of this apartment unless it's completely necessary, and then, it'll only be to Dr. Thompkins's office, okay?" He reasoned with him, setting the other gently down on a pillow before taking out his phone.

His phone rung twice before Dick picked up.

_"Roy? What's going on?"_

"Listen, Dick, I need you to come here ASAP. Don't bring anyone with you."

_"Okay, I can do that, but why? What's happening?"_

"Jason's injured."

_"How? What did he do?"_

"I'm not sure what happened. He transformed, Dick, so he's pretty stressed right now. It's a long gash going all the way up and down his front leg."

_"Do you need me to bring anything?"_

"No, I just need an extra pair of hands."

_"Okay. See you in a bit. I'll try to keep B off my tail, but you know him."_

"Thank you." Roy exhaled slowly. "Just try to keep them away. Jason doesn't want them here."

_"Gotcha."_

The phone call ended.

"All right, Jason, he's on his way." He turned towards his partner. "I'm going to go get a few things from the bathroom. I'll be right over there if you need me."

Jason Todd was not having a good night. He had to separate from Roy early on since his brothers needed some assistance, but unfortunately, that meant that there was no one watching his six later on that night. He hadn't been shot that night, but he nevertheless managed to lose a good portion of his body armor upon being taken by surprised.

The stranger had then decided to start a knife fight with him, one that ended quickly with a bullet from Jason's gun. Unfortunately, the fucker had got a good slash in on the way down and caught him from shoulder to wrist.

Jason wasn't sure how much time had passed since he managed to drag himself into the safety of the shoe box in the closet, but it must have been a while if Roy found him. Roy wasn't supposed to be back for a while.

And now Dickiebird was coming. Roy was steadfast on his decision, but Jason didn't see why it was necessary. All he really needed was the wounds to be cleaned and stitched, but apparently, his partner felt like it was necessary to call in some extra help.

Roy came back from the bathroom eventually, carrying their first aid kit. He started carefully wiping at the wound, removing some of the dried blood and cleaning it out. It stung a bit, but Jason ignored it for the most part, only kicking out at Roy slightly.

He sighed and moved to pin the wiggling leg down with one arm and continuing to clean the wound out with the other. "Try to stay still, okay?"

Jason groaned a bit, dramatically throwing his head back on the pillow.

About ten minutes later, Roy got up as Dick arrived and knocked on the door. His elder brother was cheerful as he walked in, grinning at Jason.

"Hey, little Wing!" Dick beamed. "I heard you got into some trouble tonight!"

 _Oh no._ He was not dealing with this shit tonight. His tolerance for his brother's annoying quips was normally small, but while injured, it became nearly paper thin. Jason refused to turn to meet his brother's gaze, instead looking at a random spot on the wall.

"Roy, what do you need me to do?"

"He's really fidgety like this. I need you to hold him down while I stitch him up." The archer looked pointedly at Jason, who was still pretending that they did not exist.

Fuck no, he wasn't about to let the first Robin touch him, let alone hold him down. He narrowed his eyes, bringing himself upright onto three legs and running from them as fast as he could.

"Jaybird, no!" Roy had gotten to the other side of the bed faster than he had. His partner picked him up gingerly and walked back around to their starting point.

He growled at him, barring his teeth as ferociously as he could. Obviously, he wouldn't actually bite _Roy_ , but in his opinion, Dick was fair game.

"I need you to stay put." He continued. "You won't heal right unless you let us help you."

"I'm not going to hurt you." Dick seemed to realize that it was him that Jason was running from. "Roy just needs me to make sure you don't move too much while he's trying to do your stitches."

Deep down, he knew that his brother had a good point, but he can hold himself still. He just didn't always like to be _touched_ , that's all. Begrudgingly, he let Dick slowly pin his arm in place as Roy dug the needle out of his kit.

His front leg wasn't that long. It was much shorter than his arm at the very least, and that meant it only took a few stitches until Roy was done. He twitched a bit; after all, getting stitches without a numbing agent didn't exactly feel good. He never got to move that far. Dick's arms were much stronger than the legs of small pit bull.

_He would not call his form a puppy, god damn it._

Dick's hands lingered for a bit after, but Jason nipped at his fingers quickly.

 _It's_ over _, Dickhead. Get the fuck off of me._

Dick pulled his fingers away quickly, stuck them in his mouth, and shot him a playful glare. Jason growled. He was _not_ being playful at all.

He was distracted by Roy wrapping bandages around his front leg. Jason looked up at his partner, blinking owlishly, but Roy only looked between him and Dick in amusement.

God damn it, Roy thought he was cute too. Fuck that.

"I'll go clean that mess up." Dick jabbed his thumb in the direction of the other rooms, the ones with puddles of blood on the floor. "I don't think you want any of that seeping into the subfloor."

"Thanks." Roy ran his hand through his hair. It was still sweaty; he hadn't showered since he returned to their apartment.

As soon as Dick left, Jason turned his eyes back to the pillow, and Roy set him down on the cloud of fluffy goodness.

_Fuck yeah._

He felt a larger form next to him, and based off of the shock of red he saw, he knew it was the fox form of his boyfriend. While larger than Jason's animal form, Roy's fox was by no means large. Most foxes were only about three pounds in total.

Jason twisted around to dig his nose into Roy's fur, licking it until it lay flat. A deep, rumbling noise came from the fox, and he felt his partner twist around until Jason could feel Roy's breath on his back.

Soon he grew a bit weary as Roy's tongue rhythmically pulled his fur down, but he was okay with falling asleep there. He wasn't happy by any means that Dick was still in their apartment, but he could deal with that. Roy was there. His eyelids dropped until they shut completely.


	2. Chapter 2

"Jason, stop picking at your stitches." Roy reached over and covered his partner's mouth with his hand.

It had been two days since the stitches had been put in, and Jason had yet to return to his human form. He would when they're taken out, and then, he would be able to safely transform without fear of tearing anything. Notably, he hadn't been happy about it at all. His boyfriend was used to being one of the tallest people in the room (except when around the other Outlaws), so being in a tiny, pint-sized body always made him feel uncomfortable. 

Roy just knew that someone had hurt him while he he was in his animal form. People were not normally uneasy as their animal; Roy sure wasn't. Jason once said that Willis Todd had a pit bull form too, and while Jason was a sweetheart, his biological father was anything but. His mother had tried to separate them as much as possible. It wasn't always effective.

Jason growled a bit and shook his head, removing Roy's hand from his head. He stared at the bandages on his front limb in anger as if glaring at it would burn them off of him. Roy's hand shifted to behind his head, scratching behind his ear. His partner wiggled slightly, now distracted from discomfort and pain in his front leg.

He narrowed his eyes at his partner. What did Roy think he was doing? Trying to get him on his good side? No matter what he did, it wasn't going to make Jason happy by any stretch of the imagination. He would be happy if he could be a human again, if he could be large enough that no one would be able to hurt him.

One of the reasons people would transform accidentally was if they were under great stress or in great pain, and that had happened to him years ago under the relentless assault of the Joker and the betrayal of his biological mother. The clown hadn't been surprised when the tiny boy became an even tinier puppy; in fact, he looked pleased, excited. Even though the target was smaller, his crowbar fell with just as much accuracy as it had before, and it felt even more painful. As a pit bull, his bones were smaller, thinner, and easier to break, so it felt like his entire body was shattering under the bombardment of blows.

He had forced himself back into his human form eventually out of necessity alone. The small fucker that was his animal form wouldn't be able to protect anyone from anything, so as soon as he realized the bomb was going to go off, he threw the human form over top of Sheila Haywood to shield her from the shrapnel and the aftershocks. It didn't do much; they both died anyway.

Roy seemed to sense the downturn in his thoughts, and he started using both hands to pet him. The two of them were watching Gordon Ramsay's _Kitchen Nightmares_ , distracting themselves from the world. Dick was still trying to make sure that the specific gang member who had slashed at him paid dearly, and while Jason knew that both he and Roy wanted to go out, he knew he wouldn't be allowed to. And Roy wouldn't go out in fear that Jason would do something...dumb? Reckless? He wasn't sure, but he wasn't complaining. He liked having Roy with him.

Jason twisted a little, moving on unsteady paws to walk into Roy's lap and sit back down. He sensed his boyfriend's joy at the action, so he looked up and gave his best smile. Roy beamed at him as well, scratching behind both of his ears. His leg had started burning once more with the movement, but he didn't bother bringing any attention to it. They were happy right now. It was just them, living in this moment.

"Bruce called earlier." Roy mentioned.

Jason stiffened. What the fuck did he want now?

"I told him to go to hell." He shrugged. "He wanted us to go to the Batcave and help him, so I don't think Dick told him about your injury."

He sniffed a bit. Good. If Dick had opened his goddamn mouth, he would have found his brother and personally....bit him or something. He'd figure that out later if the need arose. Hopefully, it wouldn't, and Dick would stay on his good side.

Roy pet him for a bit longer. "These stitches won't be in forever, Jaybird."

The sound he made was pretty pathetic, Jason wasn't going to lie. He wished he had the right mind to transform into a human before getting stitched up. It would have taken longer, but he wouldn't have to deal with an impossibly small body for so long. He missed being taller, being bipedal, and most importantly, having opposable thumbs.

He couldn't do shit without them, not cook, clean, or shoot motherfuckers in the face, and he found that he missed that quite dearly.

Eventually, his wound had healed enough to warrant the removal of his stitches, and Jason was glad for it. He immediately hopped into his human form, all of his joints cracking as he stood on two legs for the first time in a while. _Finally._

"You happy now?" Roy laughed as he watched his boyfriend stretch upwards.

"Unbelievably so." Jason draped both his arms over his boyfriend's shoulders and pulled him into a deep hug. "I like being the tall one."

Roy snorted, his hand running up and down the new violent looking pink scar on Jason's arm. "You were really cute as a puppy."

He growled lowly, but it sounded off now that he was a human again. "A, I am not cute, and B, my animal form is not a puppy. Just...small."

"You were so cute though." He hummed. "Dick thought so too."

"No, no, no." Jason flipped Roy around, so they were facing each other. "I am _not_ cute."

His partner gave a teasing smile. "I'm your boyfriend, so I'm allowed to think that you're cute."

"....Fine. Not Dick though."

"But he's your big brother!"

"He's a _bitch,_ that's what he is." Jason shook his head. "A bitch that's going to get _bitten_ if he comes near my pit bull again."

Roy perked up. "So you're going to be transforming again soon?"

"Maybe. I'm going to be _human_ for a while first."

"Fair."

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and suggestions are welcome and appreciated!


End file.
